


Tyger In The Smoke

by shadowolfhunter



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Love, happiness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-06 00:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4201338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowolfhunter/pseuds/shadowolfhunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some months after the murder of Nick's mother and Juliette's death, Nick is gradually putting his life back together. Things are still upset, and Nick and Sean Renard seem to be back at square one despite Renard giving Nick a roof over his head, and taking in Adalind too. In fact, the only one still really struggling with events seems to be the Captain. Hank, Wu, Monroe and Rosalee are all worried. Nick isn't. The captain just seems really sad. Then a minor crime wave hits Portland and everyone learns some things about Sean Renard and a girl from his past...</p><p>She's back, turning things upside down and inside out and Sean can't decide if he's finally lost it or not. He just knows that this time, he doesn't want to let go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It's Just Coffee

It was the paper cup that really threw Hank, it was a bright yellow colour, and since everybody got their coffee from the same source, which used brown cups, it obviously came from somewhere else.

It was the captain’s reaction to it that was really confusing.

At first Sean stiffened, then he darted a really quick look around, Hank and Nick just looked puzzled, then the captain’s eyes went back to the cup and he smiled.

That smile was new. It was warm and open, and there was a look in the captain’s eyes that Hank knew he had never seen before. Tender. Amused. Loving even.

Then he saw it. The captain’s name, scrawled on the cup. The handwriting was big and bold, in a thick purple marker. Seanie!

Now Hank was startled.

Thick purple marker, a pet name, if Hank looked a little closer he could clearly see the little heart over the i, in the captain’s name.

A throat cleared and Hank realized he had been staring. Sean was behind his desk, file open in front of him, he looked at Hank, looked back at the cup and moved it, turning it slightly so that Hank and Nick could no longer see the writing on the cup.

Hank just stared.

The captain’s eyes suddenly looked really shifty, and he honest to god blushed, cleared his throat again and flipped through the file.

“So, why are you bringing this to me?”

“It’s wesen.”

Hank took a second to be really irritated by the tone of Nick’s voice. He got that Nick was messed up after his mother’s murder and Juliette’s part in it, subsequent actions and apparent death, but damn it, Sean Renard had taken Nick in when Nick was stuck in that terrible house, and then he had taken Adalind in too.

Sean was really trying, he’d been through his own personal hell, he’d had his child snatched away from him for a third time under some pretty horrific circumstances, and Nick was now back to his frosty attitude with Renard, and to Hank’s mind that really wasn’t fair.

Sean Renard was not responsible for his family. In fact, he had been on the receiving end of their cruelty and insanity for the better part of three decades. Nick needed to cut the Captain some slack.

For the last couple of months the captain was clearly struggling. Or clearly to Hank and Wu, Renard was having difficulty coming to terms with things. The captain’s expression had been sad and careworn and slightly grumpy since the incidents.

Then came the statue, and suddenly things started to change. The captain looked happier, more relaxed and then he came into work one morning and Hank just knew.

Their Royal-zauberbiest had gotten himself laid…

Renard stayed more relaxed, and Hank wanted it to stay that way.

He shot a sideways glance at Nick, and telegraphed his irritation, time for Nick to cut this out…


	2. Remember Me!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean remembers a very special moment

He remembers the first time he met her. He was a uniform patrol officer, just taken his sergeant’s exams, passed out top of the class, as he knew he would. Amongst the muttering and resentment (which he knew there would be), he’s mulling over his two options that he’s been offered. One moves him higher up the food chain, and much faster than the other, but the other’s homicide and to a young officer looking to prove himself, though it’s apparently a slower path, he knows which one offers more excitement and potentially more reward.

A break-in comes their way, and Sean and his partner are first on the scene.

It’s his thirtieth birthday, which he knows isn’t much of a cause for celebration, but he’s feeling kinda lonely and isolated (so what’s new), and he knows the instant he steps into the house that the perpetrator is still there.

He can smell her.

Explaining that (leaving out the smelling part) to his older, resentful partner, and then the two older (yet equally resentful) detectives who catch the case, is a waste of time. They don’t believe him, and they make that perfectly clear.

He knows even has he gets back into the passenger seat of the black and white that he’s going to go back.

He can’t wait for shift end. He ignores his partner, ignores the mostly unfriendly stares around him, he changes into his street clothes and heads out before anyone can stop him.

The house is deserted, the owners having fled to a hotel, and he takes his flashlight, and slips effortlessly into the hallway, under the crime scene tape. If he’s caught now he’s in it up to his neck, his promotion dreams could be ended or at the very least put off for months, maybe even years.

He stands in the hall, trying to get a grip on his pounding heart, because a lifetime of caution and cultivating the right people in the right places is about to go up in smoke because he’s done a reckless thing.

Perhaps it’s turning thirty that does it. He’s alone, he’s been alone for years, there have been a parade of women, but Sean has no family life, even his mother has left him.

“You came back.”

He almost jumps, and woges involuntarily.

She’s at the top of the stairs. He looks up at her, zauberbiest face and all, and she laughs at him. She’s coming down the stairs and he’s just stood there staring at her, she’s tiny, no more than five-four or five to his six-four. He could snap her neck with one hand, but she’s not even slightly afraid of him. She stops at the third step so she’s more or less looking into his eyes, her tiny hand touches his ragged cheek without fear, and she rolls her head.

She’s fuchsbau. She should be afraid of him, but her hand is still on his ugly tattered skin, and she’s grinning at him. “Fox got your tongue.”

“No.” He’s terse, because damn, he has exactly no clue how to handle this childlike creature, though he knows he’s not going to arrest her.

She tilts her head, and his hand comes up, caressing her soft cheek in a mirror of her movements, she tips her head, shoving her furry cheek into his hand and purring.

She’s goddamn purring at him.

“You have a name?” she makes it a question, and here he is, thirty years old and this child, and he instinctively knows she’s scarcely more than a child, is holding all the cards.

“Sean.” He croaks, feeling a little annoyed with himself. “And you’re trespassing.” He tries to get a hold of himself.

“Relax Seanie.” There’s nothing smug about her comeback, there’s a peculiar kind of innocence to her, like the way she’s stroking his cheek gently, and he turns his head a little, letting his zauberbiest slide back undercover. Those big, soft, unusually silvery-grey eyes are haunting him, her hair is red, her skin is milk-white and almost as soft as her fuchsbau coat, and there’s this sweetness and innocence and Patrolman Sean Renard is absolutely at her mercy, and he knows it.

She’s leaning in, and her lips are so close and so soft and inviting, and he’s tilting his head, because it’s his birthday and for even one second, for one moment of real connection he’s practically throwing away his future.

Their lips meet, and he drinks in her gentle innocence, her hands slide around his neck, her fingers scritch at the short hairs on his neck and he lets himself be led.

[][][][][]

He’s almost late into work, and he steps up to his locker just as the locker room is mostly empty, which is lucky, because when he opens his locker there’s something inside. A small package wrapped in bright yellow paper, and an envelope in a very gaudy shade of pink.

He flushes, because someone has remembered his birthday and he wasn’t expecting that.

He looks around, all the same, because many of his colleagues are assholes, and there’s a fair chance that this could be something unpleasant.

It’s a hand made card, it has some kind of cartoon fox drawn on the front, and inside the plain card reads _Happy Birthday_ Seanie with three actual kisses in red lipstick underneath.

The brightly wrapped package is a little fox netsuke, he keeps it with him from now on, stuffed in his pocket, it’s always on his person.

Except for the day he’s gunned down on Nick Burkhardt’s doorstep, when his worry over what was happening made him careless.

He puts his hand into his desk drawer, shifts aside some papers, and a couple of old lip balms (he really needs to muck his desk out someday, soon), and feels for his little totem.

Tyger’s back, she’s turning his life upside down and inside out again, but this time he rather thinks he’s going to let her.


	3. Tygers Bite Sometimes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adalind is concerned, Nick is used to being disliked for being a Grimm not for being Nick, the Captain introduces his girlfriend and is badly injured saving Nick. All in a normal day really.

Adalind Schade is having a very bad ten minutes. Up until today, she had assumed that Nick was generally universally loved by all Wesen unless they had a specific beef or were criminally inclined. Now judging from the state of Nick’s black eye she knows this isn’t the case.

Back before babies and Grimms and other things interfered, Adalind had had a fairly healthy sex life, Sean Renard being the apex of that life. She had never fooled herself that Sean was in love with her, for all his gorgeousness, the bastard Prince’s heart seemed deep-frozen. But he was great in bed, and he was Diana’s father.

Adalind gently flipped the ice pack and pressed the other side carefully to Nick’s poor bruised face. He whimpered a little at the cold. She gently tangled her fingers in his thick dark hair, stroking his scalp soothingly.

She was trying to get her head around several things at once. Not the least that Sean Renard had a girlfriend. 

And she was nothing like any of his previous conquests.

Adalind knew that his taste ran to polite ladies of society who would look good at the opera or out to one of the wickedly expensive restaurants that he favoured.

Tyger Watts was nothing like that at all. 

The events of the day proved that.

Adalind had caught Sean and his Tyger coming out of Sean’s bedroom, he was still in his pyjamas, she was dressed in one of Sean’s expensive formal shirts, and the way they were with each other told Adalind everything she needed to know. She stopped, and raised an eyebrow, Sean actually blushed and introduced her to Tyger Watts.

The redhead was beautiful, young, clearly knew exactly what Adalind was and had been and was completely unfazed in a way that would have been completely different if it was Mia with Sean.

There was a surprising innocence in her face as she gazed up at Sean, and Adalind had to swallow a serious lump of jealousy. Sean Renard had never looked at her like that.

The three of them stood awkwardly at the top of the stairs after the introductions, or rather Adalind and Sean did, Tyger clearly didn’t care about awkwardness.

Nick chose that moment to emerge from his room. Tyger woged, snarled in rage and lunged. Adalind shrieked in fright, Nick’s jaw dropped in disbelief and thankfully Captain Sean Renard’s reflexes were exceptional. He flung a muscular arm around his spitting, snarling fuchsbau ‘hell-cat’ and backed up a step or two pulling her hard against his body.

Adalind had recovered her composure, noted with a vague sense of curiosity the answer to the question do fuchsbauer have tails, which was a resounding yes, being lashed angrily and she had no idea what the hell language that was coming out of the fuchsbau’s mouth but she was pretty certain that whatever it was, the words weren’t complimentary.

Meanwhile Sean had wrapped the other arm around his angry squirming Tyger, and she was melting against him and looking up adoringly.

Not the most auspicious introduction to the girl in Sean Renard’s life.

[][][][][]

Several hours later and Adalind wants to scream and scream and scream… possibly until she’s sick. She has officially had enough of this. She gets where Nick is coming from, and she really isn’t overly concerned about Sean because he’s got Tyger and she’s more than capable of looking after him and he’s pretty good at looking after himself when he isn’t flat on his back in hospital; Adalind just needs to know that Nick’s less than friendly attitude isn’t going to get them chucked out of their home. If Tyger decides she’s had enough, Adalind knows enough about real, true, honest love to know that if Tyger asks, Sean will give her what she wants.

Adalind holds the icepack to Nick’s poor bruised face and thinks very carefully about her words.

“How did this…”

“…happen.” Nick groans a little, and she rolls her eyes, really?

“The Captain’s girlfiend hates me.”

“I saw what you did there.”

“She is, a fiend. She hates me, and for once it’s not because I’m a Grimm. She hates me personally, she couldn’t care less about the Grimm.”

“What did you do?”

He shakes his head, and she pulls the ice pack away for a second. His black eye is bruised and swollen, he’s peering out through a forest of black lashes, what little she can see of his eye looks painful and bloodshot.

“She hit you really hard.” She is trying quite hard not to be too judgmental, but from what Hank has told her, Nick’s actions lead to the Captain being badly injured. Tyger is a primal creature, who loves Sean unconditionally, she would take very badly to Sean being hurt.

“She might look as though a tiny gust of wind would blow her over,” Nick gingerly put the back of his hand to his bruised cheek, feeling the heat and swelling very carefully, he winced “trust me, that’s not the case.”

“The question is, not how hard she can hit you, but what you are going to do to make it right.” Adalind began with steely glare, she would move to trembling lower lip if that failed, but right now she was thinking of herself and their baby.

“Until the Captain wakes up, I don’t think she’s going to be listening to me.”

[][][][][]

Elizabeth Lascelles paused outside her son’s room, she had come at a run, because Sean was injured and in danger again, but this time his life was not at risk, and Tyger was back.

Elizabeth had watched her son and this semi-feral fuchsbau vixen he had bonded with drift in and out of each other’s lives for years. There was no doubt in her mind they loved each other very deeply, but something always seemed to come between them. Either Sean’s passion for the Laufer and politics, or Tyger’s less than honest ways of making a living, it was always something.

This time she had hopes. Sean seemed to be running out of excuses to leave the politics alone and settle into a real relationship, and Tyger’s wildness seemed, at least on the surface, to have tamed a little. Perhaps Elizabeth would be a grandmother many times over as she had secretly hoped for years.

Tyger had curled herself into a chair at Sean’s bedside, and was holding his good hand. Sean’s pinky signet ring was on her left hand.

Elizabeth could speed Sean’s healing, or as much as she hated seeing her son in pain, she could leave nature to take its course, and give them more time together without Sean’s job and Tyger’s activities coming between them. A few weeks of discomfort for Sean, versus his long term happiness, well that was a trade off she was alright with.

She moves then, walking in to her son’s room.

“Elizabeth.” Tyger’s obviously not as asleep as she appears to be. Elizabeth smiles reassuringly, and quietly takes the other chair to sit next to her son.

Sean is not as asleep as everyone, including the doctor, thinks he is. He aches all over. Shoving Nick out of the path of the speeding car was the right thing to do, but the car had clipped him as he tried to get clear himself. Dislocated left knee, two broken ribs, and a nasty impact fracture to his right shoulder where he had slammed into the wall. It all hurts, but Tyger is there by his side, and now his mother too.

Sean drifts, holding his Tyger’s hand, emptying his mind of everything, he’ll think about his problems tomorrow.


	4. AWKWARD!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean's home from hospital and Tyger's really pissed with Nick.

Tyger is pissed, she badly wants to cuddle with Sean, curl up on the couch with his reassuring bulk behind her, leaning into his body, and have his strong arm around her while she leans her head against his chest and shoulder. Her favourite place to be.

Only she can’t have that because Sean’s stupid Grimm took a stupid risk, and Sean got hurt saving him from it. Sean has a bad impact fracture high on his right shoulder, and two ribs on his left side are broken, plus all the bruising down his hip and leg… and his dislocated knee, which has been put back but’s still sore and a bit swollen.

Tyger can’t cuddle with her Seanie the way she wants to and she’s pissed.

She’s pissed because Nick is being harsh to Sean, but Sean still won’t kick him out. And then there’s Adalind.

Tyger knows all about Adalind, and Catherine. She hates both of them, mostly Catherine, but also Adalind because she’s seen the way the hexenbiest looks at her Sean, and every single possessive bone in Tyger’s body is snarling.

Tyger wants to go to her special angry place, but Seanie wouldn’t like it, and this time she kinda made a promise to Elizabeth that she won’t go off roaming again.

Not that she wants to. Because she really wants to be there for her Sean, to stake her claim, he is hers. He’s been hers for years and they’ve already wasted enough time.

Sean is much bigger than her, and he’s struggling to get comfortable, so she puts an arm around him and eases him to sit forward, then she carefully wriggles in behind him, and pulls him back to her chest.

“I’m too heavy.” He tries not to lean on her, but she wants his weight pressing her into the cushions. It’s the next best thing.

“Don’t be silly.” She works out where she can put her hands without hurting him, it’s slightly awkward because he’s so much larger than her, and it’s not as good as cuddling into his side and chest, but he’s in her arms and she loves it.

So they’re cuddling on the couch, not quite the way she wanted, but close enough, and there’s no sign of the blonde barracuda or Grimm boy, and Tyger is perfectly happy with that, then the front door opens.

DAMMIT.

Sean puts his good hand on hers and clasps her hand firmly. She wants to leap up and finish what she started in the hospital because the dopey Grimm is giving her the stink-eye and Tyger wants to rip his throat out, but she can’t hurt Sean who’s holding on to her tight.

She lifts her lip, she won’t even woge because Sean is leaning into her and she doesn’t want her body’s changes to jostle him. But she can still snarl.

[][][][][]

Nick is doing his best. His Grimm instincts keep trying to rise up, and take out this threat, but she’s the Captain’s girlfriend, and he clearly loves her and wants her to be around.

A tiny part of Nick is still resentful that Sean gets his happy ever after and Nick’s is down to a mostly unwanted pregnancy, and his girlfriend is not only dead but had a hand in his mother’s murder. But the Captain has been hit by a car because of Nick.

Damn, he’s so confused.

The Captain looks so beat up because of what Nick did, there’s a very heavy bandage and padding around his right shoulder, his right arm’s in a sling, and Sean’s left knee has a brace on it. Tyger is cuddling him and eyeing Nick like he’s a murderer.

The childish part of Nick wants to express his disapproval of the Captain’s mate, but he supposes she does have a point. Sean got hurt because Nick was reckless.

He sits opposite them, “Sean, I’m sorry.” He says quietly.

Sean Renard isn’t exactly comfortable with his rather undignified position on the couch, but actually leaning a fair amount of his weight on Tyger is keeping her from lunging at Nick, he keeps a firm hold on her hand, as he can feel her snarling from where his head rests against her shoulder.

He loves his crazy fuchsbau vixen but this has to stop.

“Nothing to be sorry for,” he says, looking Nick in the eye, “I miscalculated the distance. And I’ve had worse.”

He knows that Tyger is still glaring at Nick, but the snarling stops, and he squeezes her hand. Sometimes she is just such a simple creature.

Nick looks down, he has more to say because Adalind’s right, he’s been taking everything out on Sean, when none of it was Sean’s fault. “I’m sorry for all the other stuff too, I…” he chokes a little, remembering it all, “I’ve been taking it out on you, and you weren’t responsible for any of it.”

Sean’s body aches, and he’s been one hundred percent done with all the drama for weeks now, but he can tell Nick is sincere and this isn’t just about where Nick and Adalind have been staying.

Tyger’s squeezing his hand gently, and she’s stopped snarling, which he takes as a win.

“Nick, you’re hurting, and god knows it was my family that caused all this.” He says, “I understand.” He moves to try and sit up, and can’t contain the wince when his broken shoulder twinges. He pants a little as he rests back in Tyger’s arms.

She’s ignoring Nick, which he supposes in a vague light-headed sort of way is progress, but Tyger’s free hand is gently stroking his neck, and he can hear her purring.

Sean gets his breathing under control, “are we good then?” he says. He doesn’t miss the look of concern on Nick’s face.

“We’re good.” Nick nods. He moves to get up, “now what do you want for dinner?”

Sean definitely winces, Nick’s culinary skills seem to extend to anything that can be nuked in the microwave, and he’s just come off three weeks of hospital food. He sincerely doubts his ability to deal with microwaved dinner.

Nick sees the wince and correctly interprets its source, “my cooking isn’t that bad.”

“It isn’t that good either.” Adalind’s coming down the stairs.

“Takeaway.” Tyger contributes to the conversation without snarling and snapping, and Sean sighs a little with relief. Now he seems to be living in a kind of commune it’s imperative that they all get along. He doesn’t want to kick Nick and Adalind out, because the whole sorry, miserable mess is not of their making either.

Sean thinks about reaching for his wallet, until he realizes it’s being waved just in front of his face. 

Tyger is a quite exceptional thief, he was lying on his wallet, and she’s squashed beneath him mostly, yet he never felt her pull it out of his pocket.

He lets go of her hand, and scowls a little, which is probably a waste of time, but her light-fingered antics have to stop… _relax_. He’s slightly startled because hey, mental connection which he’s never had before. He can hear her purring only it’s in stereo, like he can hear and feel it externally and on the inside, in his mind. It’s soothing and strange at the same time.

Sean takes the wallet from his girlfriend’s hand, and awkwardly tries to fumble a card out. Sighs because one-handed is impossible, and tosses the wallet to Nick.

“Amex, and order from the French place,” he says.

“French place?” Nick looks doubtful.

“Menu’s in the drawer by the phone.”

Nick gets the menu, and the ensuing argument over what everyone wants feels normal. Sean relaxes, Tyger’s purr soothing him into sleep.


	5. Twilight Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go wrong...

Nick was totally at a loss to understand where it had all gone so terribly wrong. It had seemed simple enough, get in, get out, forty-two seconds. According to Miss Genius, Renard’s Girlfriend.

It was all fine, right up until the moment that Tyger Watts stepped between Nick and the long blade of a knife.

Now he was looking at the wreck of his Captain.

Renard was bracketed by Rosalee and Monroe, he was definitely in shock, hands were shaking and his skin tone was grey. Rosalee was tucking a blanket around Renard’s shoulders.

Tyger was in surgery, and the Captain was in meltdown, and it turned out that Wu and Rosalee had been witnesses at Tyger and the Captain’s impromptu wedding two days before.

Just like that it was all crushing down on Nick, seeing his Captain breaking apart as his wife was swept into surgery, blood on the Captain’s hands, on his shirt front, the sheer level of pain in Renard’s… in Sean’s eyes.

Nick remembered seeing them in front of the coffee shop a couple of days ago, thinking then that it was strange that the Captain had a buttonhole which matched the blue of Tyger’s dress, and the dress seemed too elegant for the street urchin that Tyger Watts was. He remembered the height of her heels, the glorious red hair piled up on top of her head, the small hand resting on Sean’s chest, his arm around her, the way they were looking at each other, smiling, happy… 

[][][][][]

He had wanted to go out and buy an engagement ring worthy of a princess. But Tyger wasn’t like that, she liked shiny things, value in itself not really her thing, so when he saw it in a shop window, he knew.

He brought her with him, and it fit perfectly first time, and he watched her eyes gleam, the way she threw herself into his arms. The glorious beauty and innocence of her smile. The way she laughed and spun round, and landed in his arms again, giggling, and he caught her and held her close.

He went back to work, and she disappeared into the shopping mall with his credit card and a mission to find the perfect dress because she wanted to look beautiful for him, and somewhere in the back of his mind he realizes that they have finally moved on to the part of their relationship that he trusts her implicitly.

How three days later, they’re holding hands outside the registry office, the marriage licence practically burning a hole in his pocket, and Wu and Rosalee walk up, how he looks down at his beautiful Tyger with the small bouquet of flowers in her hand, which matches the buttonhole he’s wearing, his tie in a nice toning shade of blue which goes with her dress.

How he’s holding her hands, and repeating his lines, and he gets a little choked up because this is forever and he’s no longer alone.

Alone.

[][][][][]

Rosalee gently pulls the blanket over Sean. He’s shivering, his skin is grey, his eyes are fixed on a point in space, which she will take right now because if he looks down and sees his hands, and his shirt, he’s going to come apart at the seams.

The blanket warms him a little, covers the bloodstains. Tyger’s blood. And Rosalee really hopes that Nick has some plan, because this is about as bad as it can get.

She has some wipes in her purse, and part of her wants to reach out and take his hands and wipe the blood away before he sees it, before he comes far enough back to himself to fall.

She knows what he’s been through. She knows more about Sean Renard than anyone else is aware of, and more than she’s ever let on to even Monroe. Besides her Monroe is smart and wise, he knows that she knows, and he never asks because if she needs him to know a thing she will tell him.

She knows for instance that Sean Renard is really three years younger than all his official paperwork says he is, that he joined the Laufer at thirteen and he’s been working for them, and himself, since that time. That the closed off and apparently manipulative half Royal half zauberbiest is a lot less manipulative than he appears to be; that sometimes the angry lost child inside of Renard has more control, and Renard lashes out. Never without thinking, but he takes his social cues from what he knows, and that can seem unfeeling to those who don’t understand him.

She looks down at his hands, big, strong, capable, gun-calloused from years of firearms training, certification and use, only now his elbows are on his knees, and his hands are limply curled, fingers and palms stained with his wife’s blood, as he tried so hard to hold it inside of her. Suddenly she can’t stand it. Gently, not to spook him, because he’s already so badly messed up that the slightest thing could push him over, she pulls the packet of wipes from her bag, extracts a couple and takes his hands in hers.

She holds his hands, and wipes his fingers, and his palms, he turns his head to look at her then. She looks into those beautiful green-gold eyes, watches the tears well and gather and fall, and keeps her hands covering his, concealing the now bloody wipes in the palm of her hand.  
He moves then, pulling her close, burying his face in her shoulder, and Rosalee hangs on, as Monroe pulls the blanket tighter around Sean, and leaves a comforting hand on the Captain’s back.

[][][][][]

Monroe knows about the Captain, and the wedding, and Monroe’s wife’s part in that wedding. He knows some pretty fucked up shit about the Captain’s family too.

He’s never had much time for Royalty, but Renard is loyal to Portland, not just another Royal with more ambition than sense. He’s good for Portland’s wesen, and Monroe has more time for Renard than he suspected he would have.

Now the Captain has finally found his lady, and they have a shot at happiness, which could go sideways now leaving Sean a widower after only two days of marriage, and Monroe appreciates what Sean did for him during the Wesenrein, so Monroe’s going to do what he can.

Right now that’s all that’s basically holding the Captain together.

[][][][][]

Sean draws on a lifetime of survival to shut down his pain and despair. His Tyger needs him.

He makes the supreme effort to pull himself together. He’s never not going to be grateful to Rosalee and Monroe for their support, but he needs to get himself together.

He leans into Rosalee for a few seconds more, regaining his composure.

“Family of Tyger Watts?”

He sits back, and Rosalee lets him go.

He stands up, he doesn’t look down, he knows his shirt is bloody, and he can’t afford that break in his façade. He looks down at the tired looking nurse with the clipboard in her hand.

“Tyger Renard,” he says, “my wife.”


	6. Homeward Bound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean and Tyger cement their relationship, but all is not sweetness and light in the house as Nick struggles with his feelings.

It bloody hurt. That was Tyger’s first thought. Her side ached, there was a warm weight on her hand, which she divined as being Sean’s hand, holding hers. She could feel the slight tremors in his fingers, which told her that her big zauberbiest was a mess, she badly wanted to open her eyes, but her eyelids apparently had lead weights attached to them.

Tyger moaned in frustration and bit her lip a little as she fought the lethargy flowing through her veins.

A trembling hand was now stroking her hair, he was bent over her so close she could smell him, that delicious scent of expensive aftershave and her Seanie, all male zauberbiest that he was.

Something hot splashed down on her cheek, and she finally forced her eyes open at that, her Seanie never cried.

Her side hurt like hell, but she flung her free arm around his neck and pulled him close. He was hurting so badly, and she wasn’t about to just let him suffer.

That was the Grimm’s trick, and his goddamn family.

[][][][][]

He was terrified of hurting her, so when her free arm came around his neck and pulled him down, Sean went willingly. Part of him just wanted to gather her into his arms and never let her go, but practicality, and the beep of the monitor warned him off.

She was doped up on painkillers, and her side was all stitched up, and she should have been more than a little out of it, but Tyger’s grip on him was strong and sure.

He loved her so much, he just buried his face in the side of her neck and held her as much as he was able, while she held on to him.

[][][][][]

Elizabeth paused in the doorway, just lately there had been too many hospital rooms, too much pain, far too much of her beloved son’s blood spilled. Now it was his wife, and Elizabeth found herself wondering when the Royals and the Resistance and everybody were going to leave Sean and his new wife alone.

She wasn’t especially pleased that Nick Burkhardt and Adalind Schade were living with Sean and Tyger. The whole situation was awkward, Sean and Tyger would need space and peace to recover.

They were both asleep, Tyger curled around her husband, Sean awkwardly slumped forward, their hands entwined, her free hand curved around his neck, the fingers buried in the short hairs at his nape, his free hand on her leg. They looked both extremely uncomfortable and as though they would never let go.

Elizabeth smiled. They loved and needed each other, regardless of their differences, and she was okay with that. It meant their love had a fighting chance.

She crept in quietly and took a seat at her son’s side, and realized that her feisty daughter-in-law was not actually asleep.

“Elizabeth.” Tyger’s voice sounded tired, and a little raspy, but there was a distinct question in her tone, and the vaguest hint of a threat. Elizabeth suppressed the urge to laugh, her son’s little fuchsbau never lacked for courage, and it wasn’t lost on Elizabeth that the younger woman was holding her husband close in a very protective manner.

That was good, because Sean needed someone in his life who was only there for him.

“Tyger.”

For a minute the silvery-grey eyes searched hers like laser beams, and whatever she found seemed to satisfy the fuchsbau, because she closed her eyes again.

[][][][][]

Sean pulled his SUV into his space in front of their house, and turned to his wife.

She gave him the side eye. “What?”

“Nothing.” He traced a finger gently down the side of her face, “not a damn thing.” Tyger turned her face to kiss the finger, and smiled impishly at her husband.

“Hold that thought.” He opened his door and slid out, and was round to her side before she could do more than get her door open.

Tyger’s independent side wanted to just walk to the front door, the way her Sean was looking at her, she knew he wanted to carry her. The opportunity to snuggle in his arms won. She slid her arms around his neck, and practically jumped into his arms.

He swung her effortlessly out of the passenger seat and up against his chest. She giggled a little and clutched him tighter, dropping her head against his shoulder. For the first time in weeks, they were both healthy, and Tyger Renard had time to make up for.

[][][][][]

Nick watched the Captain and his lady from the bedroom window. He still didn’t exactly like Tyger, but she made Sean happy, and Nick realized that the Captain’s happiness and peace was worth a lot.

Nick’s peace was tinged with a vague sense of regret. There was a time when Renard had looked at him with a certain something in his eyes, but Nick had pushed him away. Too late he realized the depth of his own feelings for Sean Renard, but that was done now, Sean had found his peace in the fuchsbau and there was nothing Nick could, or would, do about it.

Now he watched Sean swing Tyger up into his arms, watched her lean her head against his shoulder, saw the love between them and let a little jealousy gnaw at his insides.

He no longer really knew where he stood. Adalind, the baby, Sean… whatever they once had, now Nick felt lost and alone.


End file.
